Day 6: All the more grace
Where sin increased grace abounded all the more (Romans 5:20 - ESV).
Our Father, how amazing is Your grace! In Your great love You sent us Your Son, and out of His fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ (John 1:16-17).
Scripture shows us that the Law only served to reveal our unrighteousness and our inability to conquer our own fallen nature. We cannot even keep Your first commandment, "You shall have no other gods before Me" (Exodus 20:3)
This commandment was explained to us in practical terms by the Lord Jesus: "'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the greatest and first commandment (Matthew 22:37-38). Our Lord went on to explain the second, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’ (Matthew 22:39).
We struggle massively with both. And yet, the Lord Jesus made it clear that they are the essence of the law: "On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets” (Matthew 22:40).
Father, we have broken Your law—even if we were able to keep the first and second commandments—which we haven't been able to do—we would still fall short. For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it (James 2:10).
We have inherited a human nature that is inherently sinful. We deserve Your justice because our sin, visible or hidden, is an affront to Your holiness. And even in our human realm, with our less-than-perfect understanding, we know that justice is essential for order and peace, stability and security. How many times we cry out for justice and long for wrongs to be made right and for evil not to triumph!
In Your love and mercy You are slow to anger. But You will never let evil triumph. You described Yourself as the Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness... (Exodus 34:6). But You spoke of Your coexistent justice: Yet He does not leave the guilty unpunished... (Exodus 34:7).
God of perfect love, God of perfect justice, You made a way to satisfy the demands of justice and reconcile us to Yourself. Against the desolate and forbidding landscape of a place called Golgotha—the place of the skull—the only One who could satisfy perfect justice—the only One in whom perfect love and perfect justice could triumph over all evil, was wounded for our transgressions... bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him… (Isaiah 53:5).
And as He uttered with His last breath,"Tetelestai" —The debt is paid—[It is finished] (John 19:30), He healed the gaping sin wound—the yawning chasm that separated us from a holy God. And whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16).
How can we thank You, our God and our Savior, for Your great love and Your mercy—for Your all-the-more-abounding, limitless matchless, grace?
Comments